  Location within Cheshire | |
| Monastery information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Curzon Park Abbey |
| Order | Benedictine |
| Established | 24 June 1868 |
| Dedicated to | Our Lady Help of Christians |
| Diocese | Shrewsbury |
| Controlled churches | Curzon Park Abbey |
| People | |
| Founder(s) | Mother Hilda Stewart |
| Site | |
| Location | Curzon Park, Chester, England |
| Coordinates | 53°10′51″N2°54′14″W / 53.180833°N 2.903889°W |
Curzon Park Abbey is one of three monasteries of nuns in the English Benedictine Congregation.
It began as an Anglican Benedictine convent at Feltham, Middlesex, founded by Father Ignatius on 24 June 1868. Feltham Priory, or Feltham Nunnery, was dedicated to Saints Mary and Scholastica (twin sister of St Benedict). [1]
The community spent 5 years in Feltham [1] before moving to Twickenham, West Malling and Milford Haven before settling in Talacre, North Wales in 1920, having been received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1913. In 1921, the nuns were accepted as members of the English Benedictine Congregation, thus inheriting a venerable tradition and a more deeply rooted Catholic identity. The changes heralded by Vatican II led to an increasing simplification in the style of monastic life. The present Community is responding to the call for renewal within the Church, and finding an authentic role in society today.
In July 1988 the community of nuns moved to a much smaller property in Curzon Park, Chester, where they also have a small retreat house. The main Abbey building is a converted late 19th Century mansion constructed mainly of red brick. A chapel was built on the Curzon Park Abbey site in 1997.
The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict, are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, they are the oldest of all the religious orders in the Latin Church. The male religious are also sometimes called the Black Monks, especially in English speaking countries, after the colour of their habits, although some, like the Olivetans, wear white. They were founded by Benedict of Nursia, a 6th-century Italian monk who laid the foundations of Benedictine monasticism through the formulation of his Rule. Benedict's sister, Scholastica, possibly his twin, also became a religious from an early age, but chose to live as a hermit. They retained a close relationship until her death.
Feltham is a town in West London, England, 13 miles (21 km) from Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it became part of the London Borough of Hounslow in 1965. The parliamentary constituency of Feltham and Heston has been held by Labour Party MPs since 1992. In 2011, the population of the combined census area of Feltham, Bedfont and Hanworth was 63,368.
A religious order is a subgroup within a larger confessional community with a distinctive high-religiosity lifestyle and clear membership. Religious orders often trace their lineage from revered teachers, venerate their founders, and have a document describing their lifestyle called a rule of life. Such orders exist in many of the world's religions.
The Camaldolese Hermits of Mount Corona, commonly called Camaldolese, is a monastic order of Pontifical Right for men founded by Saint Romuald. Its name is derived from the Holy Hermitage of Camaldoli, high in the mountains of central Italy, near the city of Arezzo. Its members add the nominal letters E.C.M.C. after their names to indicate their membership in the congregation. Apart from the Roman Catholic monasteries, in recent times ecumenical Christian hermitages with a Camaldolese spirituality have arisen as well.
The Olivetans, formally known as the Order of Our Lady of Mount Olivet, are a monastic order. They were founded in 1313 and recognised in 1344. They use the Rule of Saint Benedict and are a member of the Benedictine Confederation, where they are also known as the Olivetan Congregation, but are distinguished from the Benedictines in their white habit and centralized organisation. They use the post-nominals 'OSB Oliv'.
Downside Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in England and the senior community of the English Benedictine Congregation. Until 2019, the community had close links with Downside School, for the education of children aged 11 to 18. Both the abbey and the school are at Stratton-on-the-Fosse, between Westfield and Shepton Mallet in Somerset, South West England. In 2020, the monastic community of Downside Abbey was home to fifteen monks. In 2022, the community moved to Devon.
Augustine Baker OSB, also sometimes known as "Austin Baker", was a well-known Benedictine mystic and an ascetic writer. He was one of the earliest members of the English Benedictine Congregation which was newly restored to England after the Reformation.
The Abbey of Our Lady, Help of Christians, commonly known as Worth Abbey, is a community of Roman Catholic monks who follow the Rule of St Benedict near Turners Hill village, in West Sussex, England. Founded in 1933, the abbey is part of the English Benedictine Congregation. As of 2020, the monastic community had 21 monks.
The English Benedictine Congregation (EBC) is a congregation of autonomous abbatial and prioral monastic communities of Catholic Benedictine monks, nuns, and lay oblates. It is technically the oldest of the nineteen congregations affiliated to the Benedictine Confederation.
St Mary's Abbey, also known as Malling Abbey, is an abbey of Anglican Benedictine nuns located in West Malling, Kent, England. It was founded around 1090 by Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester and dissolved in 1538. The site became a monastery again in the late 19th century.
The Vallombrosians are a monastic religious order in the Catholic Church. They are named after the location of their motherhouse founded in Vallombrosa, situated 30 km from Florence on the northwest slope of Monte Secchieta in the Pratomagno chain. They use the postnominal abbreviation OSBVall to distinguish themselves from other Benedictines, who generally use the abbreviation OSB.
Stanbrook Abbey is a Catholic contemplative Benedictine Monastery with the status of an abbey, located at Wass, North Yorkshire, England.
Amesbury Abbey was a Benedictine abbey of women at Amesbury in Wiltshire, England, founded by Queen Ælfthryth in about the year 979 on what may have been the site of an earlier monastery. The abbey was dissolved in 1177 by Henry II, who founded in its place a house of the Order of Fontevraud, known as Amesbury Priory.
Ampleforth Abbey is a monastery of Benedictine monks a mile to the east of Ampleforth, North Yorkshire, England, part of the English Benedictine Congregation. It descends from the pre-Reformation community at Westminster Abbey through the last surviving monk from Westminster, Sigebert Buckley. As of 2024 the monastery has 41 monks, and sometimes will have 50 nuns of the monastery organization.
Dom Bede Camm, O.S.B., was an English Benedictine monk and martyrologist. He is best known for his many works on the English Catholic martyrs, which helped to keep their memories alive in the newly reemerging Catholic Church of Victorian England.
Aelred Carlyle OSB founded, around 1895, the first regularised Anglican Benedictine community of monks.
St Cecilia's Abbey, Ryde is an abbey of Benedictine nuns in the Isle of Wight, England.
St Augustine's Abbey or Ramsgate Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey in Ramsgate. It was built in 1860 by Augustus Pugin and is a Grade II listed building. It was the first Benedictine monastery to be built in England since the Reformation. In 2010, the monks moved to St Augustine's Abbey in Chilworth, Surrey. The site is now owned by the Vincentian Congregation from Kerala, India. The church of St Augustine, across the road from the abbey site, belongs to the Archdiocese of Southwark and is a shrine of St Augustine of Canterbury.
Ten Putte Abbey is a monastery with an abbey in Gistel, roughly 8 km to the south of Ostend, in the western part of Belgium. It was built to mark the spot where, in 1070, Saint Godelina was murdered by strangulation and then thrown into a pond. Before 2007 the abbey was home to nine Benedictine nuns, who were members of the wider Subiaco Cassinese Congregation in West Flanders. Since 2007 it has been occupied by brothers and sisters of the "Mother of Peace" community.
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